Terraformed Skies

by Anna Lewis

  Once he got there, he would take care of Jason and hope that the timing would be tight enough that the police would be there to witness Jason kill himself.

  That would make it even better. He would have to remember to tell Jason that his name was Jacob. Otherwise, if the police came in before he took care of him … Jason.

  That would ruin everything.

  ***

  Adam was already sitting at a table when Lilly came through the door. She waved the waitress away when she tried to seat her and went straight to where Adam was sitting.

  “I got you coffee,” he said around a bite of food. “But then I was so damn tired, I drank yours and mine.”

  “I’m sorry Adam. I didn’t know who else to talk to. I have to talk to someone.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You know what I mean. It’s about the case.”

  “That’s good. I was a little afraid you dragged me out of bed to talk about girl stuff.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “Of course I’m joking.”

  The waitress came and Lilly ordered her usual. The waitress refilled their coffees and left just as quickly as she’d come to the table, giving them the privacy they needed.

  “So what’s up? I mean besides us and not the sun.”

  “Jason came to my house.”

  “Well that escalated quickly.”

  “He made bail and he came to talk to me.”

  “And?”

  “We had dinner.”

  “Geez, Lilly. What is it with you and that man?”

  “I was already eating, and he threatened to camp out on my porch. That would have been much worse.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “We talked. He thinks someone tampered with the video and that the DNA will exonerate him.”

  “And what do you think?”

  “I don’t know, Adam,” she said miserably, pouring sugar and creamer into her coffee.

  “Do you think he did it?”

  “No.”

  “But the evidence is there.”

  “The video evidence is there. Nothing else fits.”

  “So what you’re saying is, you have a gut feeling?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “So what’s the problem? Just wait it out. DNA will be here soon, and then we’ll know for sure.”

  “DNA should be here already, but they keep pushing us off.”

  “I know. It’s really starting to piss me off.”

  “Me too. It seems like the one thing we need to clear this up is the thing that’s taking the longest to get back.”

  “So what happened after dinner?”

  “Nothing. He went home.”

  “That’s it?”

  Lilly blushed.

  “Well, I called him back and kissed him goodnight.”

  “Atta girl,” Adam said sarcastically.

  She kicked him under the table.

  “Shut up.”

  “It was just a kiss, Lilly. Relax.”

  “I guess.”

  “Is there more that you’re not telling me?”

  “No,” she said, a scene from her sex dream flashing through her mind.

  Adam opened his mouth to speak, but the waitress was coming to their table with their order.

  She set Adam’s down in front of him, turning to Lilly and smiling. She hit the top of creamer, tilting the plate and spilling the contents of her breakfast on Lilly’s white blouse and jacket.

  “Oh no,” the waitress said, hurrying to help Lilly get the hot food off of her and dabbing at Lilly’s clothes pointlessly.

  Lilly pushed her hands away, trying not to get upset with the poor woman. It was an accident, but it didn’t change the fact that Lilly was going to have to change before work. There was no way that she could go in with egg yolk down the front of her.

  “I’m so sorry,” the woman said.

  “It’s alright. I have time to change. Adam, can you bring my food with you when you go to the office and I’ll meet you there after I shower and change?”

  “Sure can,” he said, digging into his food.

  “I’ll make you a new meal and pack it up fresh, on the house,” the waitress said.

  “Thank you. Don’t let it ruin your day. We all screw up at work.”

  “No truer words,” Adam said without looking up from his meal.

  Lilly grabbed a handful of napkins and plunged them into the untouched ice water on the table. She hurried out to her car, dabbing at the mess as she went. She didn’t want to go home. She had a lot on her plate, and going home was just out of the way.

  “I hope this isn’t how my entire day is going to go,” she said, resigning herself to having to go home.

  Maybe she’d even shower. It wasn’t like she didn’t have enough time.

  ***

  Jason was drooling when he came to again, but this time, his mind was a little clearer. Maybe it was the sunlight streaming in through the front window, or maybe he’d finally had enough time to flush everything out of his system. But he was feeling better.

  And he finally had a solution.

  Jason wiggled his feet, trying to rid himself of the horrible pins and needles feeling from laying at the awkward angle they’d been in for so many hours. He gritted his teeth. He’d never had any body part fall asleep for so long, and the pain was almost excruciating.

  When he could finally move without pain shooting up to his bound knees, he slowly rocked his upper body back and forth. The chair moved, painstakingly slow as he rocked and rocked, the legs only coming up a few millimeters.

  Jason was patient, fully aware that moving too fast would find him sprawled on the ground and in worse shape than he already was. He had to be smart and take his time. That was the only way he was getting out of this.

  He breathed a sigh of relief when he finally had the back of the chair just inches from the wall. He looked over his shoulder, gaging the distance as best as he could. Certain that the six or so inches between the back of his chair and the wall were exactly what he needed, he rested for a moment, going over his plan in his head once more.

  Satisfied that his plan would work, he threw his upper body back, tilting the chair backwards until it came to rest on the wall. The front of the chair was raised high enough that he was able to put his feet down, and flex and point them without thrusting the chair further back.

  He worked his ankles, ignoring the pain that shot through him. When he could finally feel the bottoms of his feet, he pointed his toes until he could just brush the tips of his shoes along the floor.

  “Perfect,” he said out loud, feeling triumphant.

  He held his feet flat, poised about eight inches above the floor and laid his head back against the wall. He closed his eyes, silently counting to three and willing his body to get this right on the first try. If he failed, he might still end up on the floor, which would be the worst.

  With all his might, he rocked forward, planting his feet flat on the floor and ducking his head to balance himself. He struggled for a moment, the force of his movement almost knocking him over.

  Then he was steady, standing on the floor with a chair tied to him like some kind of twisted turtle shell.

  “Yes!” he exclaimed.

  He was going to get out of this, and he was going to save Lilly before it was too late.

  He waddled a few steps backwards, connecting with the wall almost immediately. He stepped forward, happy that the movements became easier, though it was still awkward with the chair tied to his calves and knees.

  When he’d gone about three feet he stopped and took a deep breath. He rushed backwards as fast as he could, falling right away and slamming the chair into the wall. There were several loud cracks, and the wood of the old chair bent between him and the wall.

  But the chair held fast.

  “You can do this, Jason.”

  He rocked forward off the wall again, taking the same amount of steps forward again and adding tw
o for good measure. He rushed backwards again, this time doing his best to stay upright until the last possible second. There was a smashing sound, and he could hear some of the wood cracking again.

  But the chair and the ropes held fast once more.

  “Dammit,” he said loudly. “This is going to work.”

  He went forward again, noticing that it was easier to walk. He shook side to side a little and could feel that some of the wood joints were damaged. Another good hit or two and he would have the chair pulverized. He just knew it.

  Jason went further from the wall this time, bolstered by the freer movement and feeling confident that this was going to work. It worked in the movies, so there was no reason to think it wouldn’t work now, right?

  He rushed backwards again, screaming out in anger as he did and throwing himself into the air so that he crashed violently into the wall.

  There was a loud crack and he felt the seat and the back joint crack down the middle as he slid down the wall and his feet rested on the ground.

  The ropes were somewhat looser, but a quick shimmy proved that they still were not about to budge.

  “Last time,” he said, and he was feeling pumped up.

  He was almost free.

  He rushed backwards so quickly that he almost flew, slamming into the wall with a satisfying thud and the cracking of damaged wood.

  And then the he felt it. The pain was searing, red hot in the side of his abdomen just above his hip bone.

  He looked down and saw the blood spreading on his shirt. A quick step forward and the chair fell away and the rope pooled at his feet. But the pain remained.

  Jason gingerly picked up his shirt, more than a little afraid of what he would find. As he thought, a large splinter of wood the size of his finger was buried in his side. The bleeding had already stopped, but the shard was going to have to come out.

  Out of the frying pan and into the fire, he thought.

  But he was free.

  His hands were still bound loosely, but he would deal with that in a moment.

  He went into the kitchen, turning sideways so the he could open drawers and search through what was left.

  An old knife was still in the knife block on the counter. Jason made his way to it, standing on his toes and twisting awkwardly to get it with his hands still bound behind him.

  He cursed when he almost dropped it, but somehow managed to catch the tip of the handle. Slowly, he worked at the rope until it suddenly dropped apart, falling onto the ground and leaving his hands completely freed.

  “Yes,” he said.

  He made his way into the bathroom, and stopped cold in his tracks. This room hadn’t changed a bit. It was exactly how he remembered it. Somehow, amidst all the destruction, this one room had been spared.

  Pushing back the nostalgia, he went to the floor to ceiling linen closet and pulled open the door. He reached around in the top shelf, clenching his teeth against the pain. His hand connected with metal and he breathed a sigh of relief. The first aid kit was there, just where his dad had always kept it.

  He opened the box, pulling out the betadine and some gloves. He grabbed a handful of gauze, holding it just below the splinter as he poured the betadine over it. He sucked in a deep breath, closing his eyes and bracing himself.

  Wrapping the gauze around the fragment of wood, he pulled quickly before he could change his mind. It fought for a moment and then slid out so quickly that Jason lost his grip on it and it sailed across the room and bounced onto the floor.

  The blood started flowing again, but Jason let it. The flow was slow and he didn’t have any way to flush the wound anyway. He was going to need medical attention soon, but if he could get it clean enough, he could patch it up and go after Jacob before he hurt Lilly.

  Or worse.

  He watched the blood seeping out of his body with stoic indifference, waiting until he felt like enough time had passed before he flushed the outside with betadine in a steady stream. Blood and betadine had already stained his pant leg, but he didn’t pay it any mind.

  He set the betadine down and pulled more gauze out of the kit, packing it deep into the wound and taping a large square over the packing to hold it in. He finished by wrapping a roll of bandage around his midsection, using the entire roll and tying it off like his dad had shown him.

  Jason looked at his shirt, dripping with blood and dirt. His pants were dark and the material barely showed the filth from the betadine and the blood. But his shirt was another story. He was miles away from the city, at least twenty minutes by car. If he had any hope of getting to Lilly in time, he was going to have to hitch hike.

  And no one was going to pick him up the way he looked right now.

  He went through the house, passing by his old room. He hadn’t left anything in there.

  His father’s closet was on one end of the master bedroom, his mother’s on the other. Tears welled in his eyes.

  The bed sheets were tattered and weathered, but they remained almost the same as they had been before. His mom never made the bed, and he could see that she’d stayed true to form the morning of their death.

  He let out a shuddering breath and made his way to his dad’s closet. He opened the doors, not surprised that many of the clothes were destroyed or missing.

  He went through the shirts until he found one that wasn’t too moth-eaten and didn’t reek of varmints. He pulled it over his head, trying to keep his emotions in check.

  The hem of the shirt came halfway down his thigh, covering a good portion of the mess that his wound had made of his pant leg.

  He left the bedroom quickly, trying to put as much distance between himself and his memories as possible. He couldn’t get lost in the pain their loss brought out.

  He jogged out the front porch and onto the dirt road. Keeping close to the edge, he kept his eyes and ears open for any sign that Jacob had returned. He didn’t think he would so soon, but Jacob seemed to be adept at surprising people.

  The last thing he needed was to end up right back where he started. He thanked his lucky stars that it was spring time in Texas and not oppressively hot as it was in the summer.

  He ignored the pain in his side, pressing on towards the highway. He was going to save Lilly, even if he died trying.

  ***

  Lilly pulled up to the curb, looking at her blouse and trying to decide if she really needed to change. Now that she’d gotten most of it off and the rest was dry, it wasn’t nearly that bad. Still a new outfit and a shower sounded heavenly right about now.

  Shrugging, she decided that she was already here. She needed a shower and a refresh on the morning. She wasn’t going to let this morning ruin her entire day.

  She got out of the car, hurrying up the walkway to her door. Lilly’s phone rang as she was about to put her key in the door. She stopped, answering it on the first ring.

  “Detective Bruce,” she said.

  “Lilly, it’s me, Ella. Do you have a minute?”

  “Oh, Ella, I can’t tell you how good it is to hear your voice. Are you back from leave?”

  “I am, and I made a stop on my way in that I think you’re going to be excited about.”

  “Tell me you have—”

  “Yep. I picked up our DNA samples from the lab in Dallas.”

  “Are they completed? I thought we had a few days left.”

  “It’s been run against your samples and all the printouts were done, but no one had taken the time to actually look at them. There was no way you were going to get them when you were promised though. They were behind so many other cases you would have been lucky to get them back next year.”

  “Did you get a chance to look at them?”

  “I did, and I think you’re going to want to see this.”

  “I’m getting in the car right now,” she said.

  “Good, I’ll call Adam and let him know you’re on your way.”

  Lilly hung up the phone, leaving her door locked and turning back towards he
r car, totally forgetting about her stained blouse. She made the drive to the station in record time, eager to talk to Ella and see what she had to say. As much as she wanted to believe Jason, she needed more proof than just his word and her hunch that he wasn’t the bad guy. Hopefully, Ella would provide her with the proof that she needed. Then, she would have a reason to question the video evidence and no one would wonder about her motivation.

  Adam pulled into his space as Lilly rounded the corner and parked.

  “It must be good if she called both of us in,” Lilly said to him as she got out of the car.

  “I would say so, since she came in specifically for this case.”

  “I thought her maternity leave was over?”

  “No. She has another few weeks.”

  “Then why is she here? Someone must have called—”

  She looked at Adam.

  “Adam, you didn’t.”

  “I did. We were getting nowhere fast and I knew that Ella would give us the edge we needed to finally solve the case.”

  She stopped, reaching out to grab his wrist.

  “What are you saying? You believe that Jason isn’t the murderer? I thought you said I was insane.”

  “I’m saying that I want to have all the information before I decide. Nothing more, nothing less.”

  “But you think I might be right.”

  “I hope you are, Lilly.” He moved closer, looking around to make sure that they were alone in the parking garage. “Look, I know I haven’t known you long, but I haven’t seen you as happy as you were with Jason. I don’t know what to believe, but the evidence seems pretty clear. If Ella has something that proves that Jason is innocent, I’ll be so happy.”

  “And if she doesn’t?”

  “Then she has something important. She was excited. If she has the last nail in Jason’s coffin that proves it’s him beyond the shadow of a doubt, then that’s good too. Because then you can walk away without feeling like he’s telling the truth, and you can cut him out completely and move on.”

  “I guess you’re right,” she said, following him out of the parking garage and down the hall that led to Ella’s lab.

  Ella was there, in her standard white lab coat, sitting at her computer and staring at the readout. There was a tiny infant cradled against her in one hand, her free hand scrolling through the information. A satisfied smile took up most of her beautiful face. She had something, and it was big.